Digital transition is very confusing to me???

Question

Digital transition is very confusing to me???

Answer 1

Eventually cable will phase out what you are describing and force everyone onto digital through their cable boxes. But It's my understanding that won't happen for another couple of years.

Answer 2

If I were you I would switch to Directv or Dish Satellite

Then you will not have to worry about any of the changes when they occur. Cable is so overpriced any way, and like you said they take away from you and the price stays the same.

Go satellite it's much,much better.

Answer 3

I understand your concerns. First of all, yes, the transition in February 2009 does indeed affect only Over The Air (OTA) broadcasts. Cable systems, under the law, are supposed to support analog TV viewers until 2012. The question here is, what do they define as support?



Apparently, from your description, it seems Comcast has decided to move popular stations to the digital tier on their system to "encourage" customers to upgrade to digital cable. The type of converter box sold in the stores will not assist you in receiving digital cable, they are only good for OTA broadcasts. Also, signals like The Game Show Network and CMT are not typically available OTA. To receive digital cable, you must subscribe to that service from the cable company. Did they tell you if they were charging extra for the new box you needed?



I can't tell you what to do, but from your description, it would seem that you have the following choices.



1. Stay with Comcast and do without the expanded basic offerings.

2. Complain to the FCC and/ or any local regulators. Many cities license the cable company in the area.

3. Upgrade to digital cable.

4. Change to a satellite provider. I don't know what the pricing structure is there, but I get more channels for less money with Dish Network.

Answer 4

Like I said, the transition in 2/2009 only effects over the air broadcasts. The federal government controls over the air broadcasts and they made up the 2/17/09 date.



Sooner or later cable TV systems will go all digital because the technological/economic drivers for changing their systems are about the same as the ones driving the change in over the air broadcasts.



The reason that Comcast keeps removing analog channels is that they can cram several digital channels in the "space" taken up by one analog channel.



Unlike the US government, Comcast can't just create money out of thin air, so they have to pay attention to certain money and business constants when planing the end of their local analog cable service.



Digital over the air broadcasts and cable signals are similar in nature but they are not the same. When the government set the rules for their converter box coupon program they made sure those converters couldn't be used in cable systems.



Most digital cable TV systems use something called "QAM" to send programming. Most DTV/HDTVs have QAM tuners so in many cases you can just connect the cable service directly to them and receive some digital programming.



Some DVD recorders also include QAM tuners. Speculation is that when the government runs out of coupons, converter models will start showing up that can be used for both over the air broadcasts (ATSC) and non-encrypted QAM cable.



By now you may be wondering about satellite TV. Dish & Direct TV have always used digital satellite signals. There is a converter built into the satellite receivers. Those converters are different than the ones used by cable and over the air broadcasts.

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More answers



The http://www.ncta.com/IssueBrief.aspx?contentId=2688&view=2#GetReadyforFebruary2009 web site covers the all cable companies. To expect it to tell you anything about what your local cable company is going to do is pretty far fetched.



>do I have to do ANYTHING or buy anything to meet the above criteria? Having to buy a 2 dollar per month box is not "being covered" by Comcast.



You are covered for the 2/17/09 transition. You are not covered for any change your cable company throws your way at any time they decide to do it. Sooner or later analog cable is going away. Apparently your local cable company is doing it one channel at a time.



A cable box that connects a digital cable system to an analog only TV is just a special type of converter box.



>statement makes it sound like if you have a newer TV purchased after 2004 that has a digital tuner in it, you don't even have to buy any kind of cable to get all the digital stations. That cannot be true. Is it or not?



Plenty of analog only TVs were made between 2004 and March 2007. So that part is misleading.



Even if you bought the latest $5000 super HDTV you cannot be guaranteed that you will never have to use a cable box. The tuners in DTVs are designed to work with a specific type of cable signal called open QAM or non-encrypted QAM. Digital cable systems commonly use QAM, but they don't have to. And after 2012 they don't have to provide local signals in an open format either.



The only people who know what and when your local cable company is going to do stuff is your local cable company and maybe whatever local regulatory agency they operate under.

Answer 5

I am not the least bit surprised by Comcast’s actions in fact I expect more cable providers will be doing the same. I am also not surprised that you have received misleading information, particularly here on Yahoo! Answers. Comcast is not lying when they say “Comcast has you covered.” The statement is so vague and potentially (or intentionally?) misleading as to be essentially worthless. Requiring subscribers to lease addressable converter boxes would easily qualify as being “covered” though not as you interpret being “covered.” Quite simply Comcast and other cable TV providers invoke their authority to define what the word “covered” means not subscribers. From Comcast’s perspective it obviously means supplying addressable converter boxes to their subscribers.



The cable industry, through their representative trade organization the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA,) has taken great pains to carefully word their statements so as not to risk losing cable subscribers.



The following two quotes are from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association’s DTV Webpage¹:



“Thanks to a compromise adopted by the FCC in September 2007, cable companies will carry the main digital signal of “must carry” commercial full power broadcast TV stations and will duplicate that signal into analog format so that all channels can be viewed on any older analog TV sets connected to cable.”



“Cable’s carriage of the signals in both digital and analog formats will ensure that all customers will see commercial full power broadcast TV signals after the transition. This approach will make the digital transition effortless for all cable customers and provide valuable assistance to commercial TV stations trying to reach all of the homes in their region.”



     ¹Cable’s Role in the DTV Transition

     http://www.ncta.com/IssueBrief.aspx?contentId=2688



Important keywords, terms or phrases: “must carry” and “full power broadcast TV stations.” (See the first link below for additional information regarding the term “must carry.”)



Commercial full-power broadcast TV stations are your LOCAL full-power television stations, nothing more. For most cable subscribers LOCAL full power television stations rarely constitute more than a small percentage of the total number of channels provided in the typical expanded basic or premium cable television packages.



For virtually all cable TV subscribers this means, in accordance with the aforementioned “compromise” agreement between the NCTA and the FCC back in September 2007, channels such as Game Show Network, Turner Classic Movies, Country Music Station, AMC, ESPN, CNN, Discovery, Disney Channel, Spike, etc., are NOT—I repeat NOT—required to be carried in both analog and digital formats (more specifically in an analog format,) which in industry parlance is referred to as dual-carriage.



The FCC’s Report and Order, including the related Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, addressing the Commission’s Rules and Policies Affecting the Conversion to Digital Television, intentionally avoids mandating cable TV providers to duplicate their full DTV core spectrum channel lineup, i.e., channels 2-51, in both digital and analog formats. The principle result of the compromise agreement is that larger cable TV providers currently passing analog signals to their subscribers, must continue providing the LOCAL MUST CARRY BROADCAST TV signals in an analog format for their analog subscribers until February 2012; or until each provider has taken the necessary steps to convert their subscribers to digital cable TV service. Again, this rules-out “retransmission consent” channels such as those mentioned above. Cable providers have the freedom to restrict any and all of their retransmission consent channels exclusively to their digital channel lineups as they see fit, when they see fit.



Ask yourself: is Turner Classic Movies a LOCAL MUST CARRY BROADCAST TV station? Does Turner Classic Movies have a broadcast station and antenna in your nearest city or town? Is Disney Channel, Spike, or any of the other channels mentioned above LOCAL MUST CARRY BROADCAST TV stations? I would hope that nobody would be naïve enough to answer yes but that IS in fact what people are doing by misinterpreting statements on Websites such as the NCTA’s and reading misleading or outright false statements on other Websites. You can look at it another way, if a channel is not available over-the-air then it is almost certainly a retransmission consent channel. The FCC’s ruling is extremely clear; cable TV providers are only mandated to provide dual-carriage of the LOCAL MUST CARRY BROADCAST TV stations and are NOT mandated to provide dual-carriage of their retransmission consent channels. The FCC cannot legally compel dual-carriage by cable TV providers of retransmission consent channels. You should also be aware that cable TV providers negotiate costly contracts to carry content from retransmission consent providers unlike content from LOCAL MUST CARRY BROADCAST TV stations which costs cable TV operators virtually nothing.



Another compelling reason that (larger) cable TV operators are eager to abandon analog is that DTV offers much greater profit potential compared to analog. So it should come as no surprise when the larger cable TV providers start flexing their muscle in various markets by slowly discontinuing the costly duplicate analog retransmission consent channels. Why people believe that the cable industry would willingly sacrifice profit for the sake of their subscribers is wholly inconsistent with the cable TV industry with which I’m familiar.



Your options are: (1) lease an addressable converter box from your cable TV provider; (2)* purchase a digital TV with an integrated ATSC-compatible QAM tuner (and CableCard option); (3) switch to a satellite television service provider; or (4) switch to over-the-air (aka off-air) digital television. *(Option (2) does not guarantee that you won’t need to lease an addressable converter box if you choose to stay with your current cable TV provider.)

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The last information you posted regarding converter boxes and DTV tuners is not correct with respect to the 2004 date. That particular information, wherever it originated, will only further confuse or mislead many consumers. Over-the-air digital-to-analog converter boxes, specifically CECBs, will not work with cable TV signals. At the very least you would want a digital TV with an integrated ATSC-compatible QAM tuner or a set-top-box with an integrated ATSC-compatible QAM tuner. Even the latter is no guarantee because ATSC-compatible QAM tuners are generally designed to work only with “in-the-clear,” i.e., non-encrypted, non-scrambled, non-premium cable TV content. This is why you will see the term “Clear QAM” frequently being used. The CableCard option is supposed to simplify things by allowing cable providers to enable decryption on CableCard-equipped devices; unfortunately this is not always the case and the cable TV industry (it should come as no surprise) opposes CableCard technology. I highly recommend that you read the last resource listed below; you will see that cable providers such as RCN are currently encrypting their entire cable lineup - including basic cable!



The situation is far more complicated than the cable industry and the media are letting-on. I suspect this why several supposedly respectable Websites are simply stating that the cable providers will 'handle the DTV transition' for their subscribers. From my perspective this approach does not help matters and only serves to confuse or mislead consumers. (This is likely one of the reasons why you're seeing misleading comments here on Yahoo! Answers.)



######## RESOURCES ########



Digital transition in 2009. Help me?

https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20080325094633AAqBn89



“Hey, Where’d All My Channels Go?” – A Follow-Up

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/AnalogGoesDark_FollowUp.html

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Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.. v. F.C.C. (93-44), 512 U.S. 622 (1994)

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/93-44.ZS.html

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. F.C.C. (95-992), 520 U.S. 180 (1997)

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/95-992.ZS.html